The Alaska Avalanche Fieldbook

The books will be out of print until we have the $4,000 from other projects that the next print run will cost us. We hope to do a new printing some time in 2017.

NEW spiral and looseleaf editions, December 2013!

We developed these versatile notebooks for our own fieldwork and courses. They have been refined and extensively field-tested in our demanding Alaskan conditions and courses, as well as in our travels and work in North America, Asia, and Europe.

The book essentially gives you an avalanche course outline, decision-making checklist, and cheat sheet in your coat pocket! The pages are designed to lead you through every step of field snow stability evaluation and recording observations.

We like the looseleaf format for forecasting use, but we now have a spiral-bound version that is cheaper, fits in a smaller pocket, and bends more comfortably in your pocket when you move. Most users will probably prefer that version. We selected the pages in it to suit recreational, student, and working backcountry or heli guide needs.

We still like the looseleaf version because it allows you to choose exactly the mix of pages you prefer, in whatever order makes sense to you, file completed pages safely away, copy or scan them flat, eliminate wasted pages, and lower your long-term costs by refilling the binder with replacement pages. Those who need more formal, two-page snowpit forms, or who want to customize their book, will want the looseleaf version.

Spiral-bound Fieldbook Features

In response to many requests for a more compact, pocket-friendly, and less expensive fieldbook for courses, recreationists, and guides; we now have a 60-page spiral-bound version. It is geared to sampling and observing frequently and widely rather than doing detailed pit profiles. It includes:

The same five key pages as listed below for the looseleaf.

Five sets of the detailed two-page profile pages.

35 aspect-elevation rose pages.

10 level pages for group names, weights, helicopter time, and other notes.

Spiral-bound Fieldbook Cost

$25 plus shipping ($5 Priority Mail anywhere in the US for a single book).

For non-US orders, add $15 for postage. Sorry, we cannot get our online provider to take non-US shipping addresses, so we must ask you to send these bits of information by e-mail to aas07@mac.com, or lphone us at 206-617-7703: card number, expiration date, the 3-digit CVV number from the back, and the billing postal code. Don't forget that we will also need your shipping address. Most cards work if we enter them manually.

Ordering

We just set up online ordering through Square Marketplace. Please let us know how this works for you.

If it does not work for you, just give us a call or drop us an e-mail and let us know what you want. We can take your credit card information and can usually get your books to destinations in the US within a few days to a week.

The Stability Evaluation and Keeping Field Notes handout on our Course Resources & Handouts Page contains detailed information and instructions for use of these books, including the most-current draft of any revisions pending for the next printing of our checklist and key pages.

The JL Darling #200 looseleaf binders we use are the best available, but are larger, stiffer, and slipperier than we would like. Skateboard deck tape makes good nonskid, and a little creative work with duct tape can add pencil pockets, but the simplest way to improve them is to add the Cordura nylon zippered covers with pencil pockets that are available directly online from JL Darling as No C9200.

We make our own looseleaf binders more flexible by cutting off the front and back plastic covers, leaving the plastic on the binder spine so the clip rings work, and then hand-sewing velcro tabs on the Cordura covers to hold the spine in place.